AMA: Snowflake Head of Enterprise Marketing, India, Kanchan Belavadi on Demand Generation Career Path

Growth marketing is a field which requires one to be constantly on their feet. So the biggest quality in someone should be adaptability to change and ability to react quickly to the market. A lot of the work involves analytics, SEO, so having those skills will give you an edge. But what makes you truly successful is to understand the requirements of the company and then using those skills to achieve your goals.

Some of the top frustrations are around expectations and timelines. E.g. Being asked to generate leads immediately in the same month/quarter for enterprise customers, being asked to only connect with CXOs, being held responsible for an opportunity pipeline – without the supporting infrastructure – are all challenges and frustrations of a typical demand gen leader. What sets you apart is in how you educate the larger organization on the value that you can add to the business. As you continue to educate and enable them, these challenges will make way for opportunities and you can demonstrate success on mutually agreed metrics.

You need to plan a year in advance if you are looking for a raise. At the start of the year, sit down and discuss with your manager – on what you need to do to get that raise. You can both mutually agree on a set of goals/metrics and once there is sign off, you need to work towards meeting those numbers. In demand gen, there are a few key metrics that you can focus on and commit to – depending on whether you are in a B2B or B2C setup, there could be some variation – but MQLs, SQLs, Opportunity Pipeline, Cost per Lead, are some key ones. The closer you commit to the bottom of the funnel (SQL, Pipeline, etc.), the higher your relevance to the organization and the stronger your justification.

Whether you are new or junior, the first step is to listen and understand that current organization, their products, campaigns, successes and failures; before making any recommendations. A key way to gain influence is to offer help to whoever seems overwhelmed on the team – sales or marketing and be specific when you offer help. Instead of just saying “let me know how I can help”, say “I can clean up that excel and upload those leads for you”. Lighten their workload, and learn along the way. Rather than trying to solve for a big problem and show big impact, you can build your portfolio by nibbling away at the smaller things – especially when you are a junior team member.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. If you are looking at an internal switch of roles within the same organization, then you can begin by volunteering for projects on the demand gen team. You can start small and pick up larger projects and deliver them on your own as you learn. However, if you are looking at switching across organizations, then you’d be better off by learning some of the technical skills and completing trainings/certifications which give you an understanding of the function and instill confidence in the new team that you have the chops to drive demand gen.

I always ask what are your KPIs/Goals? How do you measure success? Some of the best answers I’ve heard have been around business growth directly attributed, as well as creating programs that built pipeline. I also hear a lot of candidates fumble and talk about just running campaigns/events, without any measurable outcomes. Demand generation is not only awareness, so there need to be clear and measurable outcomes that every demand gen marketer drives.